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Health

THE WORLD

Why doesn't the battle against cancer feature in conversations about “global health”? Join Joanne Silberner, reporter for The World, Partners in Health and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to talk about it on Facebook.

By Gregory T. Huang, Editor, Xconomy Boston
Can playing video games make you healthier? That’s the idea behind the “gamification” of health care, a big trend we’re seeing in the Boston tech scene and beyond.

By Toni Waterman & Jordan Weinstein
At Brigham and Women's Hospital, retired high school teacher James Carelli Jr. talked about the pioneering heart surgery. In order to put himself through it, he needed faith.

By Azita Ghahramani
The acclaimed chef wants to make it easier for families to eat healthy food — and has some kitchen tools that can help. Watch him demonstrate one of them in the Greater Boston green room.

Health

By Nancy Shute
People working more than one job or working more than 40 hours a week are sleeping less than most. Divorced and separated people are short on sleep, too, while working the night shift can wreck your sleep habits and hurt your health.

By Gregory T. Huang, Editor, Xconomy Boston
A couple of Cambridge companies are gaining ground with their regenerative medicine technology, which uses living cells and other natural materials to promote healing.

By Adam Reilly
This fall, Bay State voters will likely be asked to weigh in on the so-called Death with Dignity Act. Heather Clish’s father ended his life in Oregon using a similar law. She shared her family's experience with Greater Boston.

By Sarah Birnbaum
There is evidence that Massachusetts residents support legalizing marijuana for medical uses. But at a public hearing on a proposed ballot initiative on the issue, Beacon Hill was decidedly lukewarm.

By Sarah Birnbaum
New research shows that Bay State residents are better at sticking to their prescribed drug regimen than most. Still, one-third of the patients with chronic health conditions stop taking their medication within a year.

The Callie Crossley Show

Learn why 17 percent of American children are now considered obese and what needs to change to reverse this public health predicament. Host Callie Crossley talks with children's health and nutrition experts.

By Cristina Quinn
Little Devices is addressing third-world problems with a technique MacGyver would love: tweaking common toys and gadgets to defuse illness and disability. But is the approach a step backwards?

By Cristina Quinn
Paper is everywhere — in your coffeemaker, on your desk, in the recycling bin. But what if it could save lives? One Cambridge company thinks a slip of paper holds the answer to diagnosing illness cheaply, anywhere.

By WGBH News
The Massachusetts-based advocacy group Safe Roads Alliance thinks the National Transportation Safety Board might be going too far in its recommendation that states ban all use of cellphones behind the wheel,

By Sean Corcoran
Officials say there is no plan for how Cape Cod could be evacuated in the event of a radiation release — and they estimate only 10,000 people have potassium iodide pills to protect against radiation in a disaster.

By Xconomy.com
On Monday, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook is recruiting at Harvard and MIT to tap into Boston's hot startup market — epitomized by fast-growing upstarts such as HubSpot, Gemvara, Kayak, TripAdvisor and Wayfair.

Doctors at Brigham and Women's hospital are practicing a new procedure that allows them to give patients with knee problems customized knee replacements. The new fittings were devised by a Burlington, Mass.-based company.

By Lateefah Torrence
Lateefah Torrence tells about how she used to fear becoming an unwed and undereducated young black woman politicians loved to berate. But when she met her husband and they started to try getting pregnant, her fears changed.

WGBH SERIES

By Sean Corcoran
The Alzheimer's caregivers’ story is often one of sustained stress, exhaustion and isolation. Rates of depression, poor nutrition and chronic disease among caregivers of Alzheimer's patients are higher than for non-caregivers — and the state has more than 120,000 of those patients. Read and listen to Sean Corcoran's coverage, which won regional Murrow and AP awards.

The Caregivers' Challenge

By Sean Corcoran
Looking at paintings in a museum or singing songs around a piano is not going to stop Alzheimer's as it steals away memories and personality. But around the country, art and music therapy programs are becoming more common for people with memory impairment.

The Caregivers' Challenge

By Sean Corcoran
The goal of many people with Alzheimer's disease and their families is to find a way for the person to spend their final days in their home. Oftentimes the burdens associated with the disease makes that impossible, but a new kind of assisted-living home for the memory-impaired offers an alternative to the traditional nursing home.

The Caregivers' Challenge

By Sean Corcoran
The Noonan family knows too well what it's like to watch a loved one die of Alzheimer's: Their mother had it, and passed it on to at least four of her ten children. They say advanced planning, although painful, has been key to helping the family handle the disease.

The Caregivers' Challenge

By Sean Corcoran
There are more than 120,000 people with Alzheimer's Disease in Massachusetts. Their caregivers each have stories of sustained stress, isolation and exhaustion -- with higher-than-normal rates of depression and chronic disease. This week, WGBH's Sean Corcoran takes a deep look at the challenges of caregiving.

Health

By April Fulton
The Food and Drug Administration is meeting Wednesday and Thursday to examine whether artificial food dyes cause hyperactivity in children. Recent studies have drawn this link, causing some experts to call on the FDA to ban the dyes — or at least require a warning label.

By Jared Bowen
A group of students is pushing for the increased availability of condoms in Boston Public Schools. Some advocates think the popularity of hyper-sexual television shows like Skins makes this a good time to step up sex ed. -- but many are opposed to condoms being available in schools.

Health

By Gretchen Cuda Kroen
An Italian scientist has a controversial new theory on what causes multiple sclerorsis — and how to treat it. Some patients, desperate to stop the disease's spread, have tried it, only to have it fail months later.

By Sarah Birnbaum
A study released in Boston Thursday finds that falling behind on rent has a significant impact on health. Health and housing advocates are calling on the state to provide additional funding to help families stay in their homes. WGBH's Sarah Birnbaum reports.

Health

By Sarah Varney
A deep massage technique, called Rolfing Structural Integration, was last popular in the 1970s. Now, it's hip with the yoga-Pilates-acupuncture crowd. But scientists say the research supporting its effectiveness is limited.

Greater Boston host Emily Rooney talks with Bruce Feiler about his epic 10,000-mile journey, his fight against bone cancer, and how losing his ability to walk had a profound effect on his passion for living.
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By Allison Aubrey
Native Americans and pilgrims agreed on at least one thing: Cranberries were good medicine. Nearly 400 years later, scientists are only beginning to unlock the antioxidant and other medicinal benefits of this gorgeous berry.

By Sarah Birnbaum
New nursing laws and copayment-free health care services were on the agenda as businesses came together for an information session on how health care reform will impact employers in Massachusetts.

Some grocery stores are using the same sensory marketing tricks to change people's buying habits that big food companies and restaurants have used for years. These new marketing tools can also promote public health.

By Sean Corcoran
A small group of local business leaders who are using their proven investment techniques — and their personal fortunes — to assemble what they believe are the world's most promising researchers to slow, stop or reverse Alzheimer's Disease.

The thing about fundraisers is that you have to give something — cash, normally — in order to get. And what you get is often intangible: a good feeling or the sense that you’ve done something worthwhile.

There’s not a wine drinker among us who hasn’t heard of the potential health benefits of resveratrol — you know, the chemical compound found in the skin of red grapes and, it follows, in red wine as well.

Given the choice between an 11% abv (alcohol-by-volume) wine or one that’s 15.5%, I’m much more likely to go for the one with less alcohol. It’s not that I’m a lightweight – I can handle the alcohol – but more often, it has to do with the sweetness of a non-dessert wine that such high levels of alcohol.